The Battle of Nedao was fought in Pannonia in 454 between the Huns and their former vassals or allies. The Nedao is believed to be a tributary of the Sava.Wolfram 1990, p. 258.
Battle
According to the 6th-century historian Jordanes:
The battle in Hungarian chronicles
The description of the battle in medieval Hungarian chronicles follows:
Modern views
After the death of Attila, allied forces of the subject peoples under the leadership of Ardaric, king of the Gepids, defeated the Hunnic forces of Ellac, the son of Attila, who had struggled with his brothers Ernak and Dengizich for supremacy after Attila's death. Ellac himself was killed in the battle.
Jordanes claimed that at the Battle of Nedao the Ostrogoths fought against the Huns, but this is rejected by modern historians such as Herwig WolframWolfram 1990, p. 259. and Hyun Jin Kim. The latter believes that this is a forged story and that the Ostrogoth king Valamir himself fought alongside the Huns. Alternatively, J. R. Martindale and Franz Altheim accept that the Ostrogoths were among the victors of Nedao, while many others, including Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, believe that they did not participate at all.Wolfram 1990, p. 448. Note 87 reflects the scholarly debate on the matter.
Aftermath Hunnic dominance in Central and Eastern Europe was broken as a result of the battle. It is hard to reconstruct the exact course of events, but by the early 460s the Hunnic Empire dissolved, with the Gepids, Rugii, Heruli, Suebi, and Ostrogoths achieving independenceThe Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 14, p. 18. . and eventually becoming federates of the Eastern Roman Empire.Wolfram 1990, p. 260. The Huns, reorganized under Dengizich, moved to the east, where they attacked the Eastern Roman Empire and were decisively defeated in 469. After that point, the Huns cease to exist in European history.History of Humanity: From the seventh century B.C. to the seventh century A.D., UNESCO, 1996, , p. 243.
See also Hlöðskviða
References
Sources
Herwig Wolfram. History of the Goths, transl. Thomas J. Dunlap, University of California Press, 1990,